Secret Santas and Strangers
by Purplicouspolkadot
Summary: Percy probably shouldn't have left buying the present to the last hour. But, there he was, in Half-Blood Tech, looking for a gift for some girl named Annabeth. OR the one in which Percy is part of a secret santa gift exchange, and Annabeth works at a tech store. (Mortal AU) Christmas Oneshot


**A/hN Hey guys... *Laughs nervously* sorry I haven't been really active lately, I had school and was procrastinating. On another note, I got a tumblr account (yay) my username is hades-the-peanut, though I might change it soon. Also, I think I'm going to discontinue Birthdays. I missed Thalia and Hazel's and I feel like the oneshots are getting really repetitive. Okay, this is another oneshot (I'm not good at writing multichapter fics okay?) about Percy and Annabeth. It started out as Jason and Piper, but they were really OOC and more like Percy and Annabeth, so I changed it. (btw this is an all mortal AU and Percy and Annabeth don't know each other)**

 ** _Disclaimer: Seriously. I don't own PJO or HoO_**

 _Secret Santas and Strangers_

Percy was screwed. Utterly, completely screwed. It was Christmas Eve, and he had about an hour to get to Jason's apartment for his cousin's Christmas party. Percy, being very prepared, had forgotten to buy a gift for their secret Santa gift exchange. Unfortunately, he had gotten some chick named Annabeth or something who was Jason's sister's best friend, and Percy had absolutely no idea what she liked. So, he decided to get her a video game, because who doesn't like video game? Okay, so a lot of people didn't like video games, but this girl was Thalia's best friend, and Thalia was known for her love of video games, so her best friend should have some interest, right? But, his half brother, Tyson, arrived for a surprise visit, and buying the present completely slipped from his mind. As he was getting ready for the party, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't gotten a present yet. _Oh shoot, I forgot to buy a present,_ he thought, _but there should still be at least one store that has some, right? I'll just look around. I have plenty of time_. Obviously, Percy hadn't thought that idea through a lot, and ended up looking through four different stores unsuccessfully, and wasted around half an hour. Most of the stores were sold out of everything except for some crappy game called Mr. D's Camp or something. The store clerks had practically laughed in his face when he asked if they had anything left in the back rooms. He sighed as he pulled up at a relatively new store near Percy's apartment called Half-Blood Tech, and prayed that they had at least one decent video game left.

As Percy entered the store, a middle aged man wearing a nametag that read "Chiron" smiled kindly at him. "Welcome to Half-Blood Tech! Can I help you with anything?"

"Yes please. I need to find a video game for a gift exchange. Do you have any left?" Percy asked. Chiron frowned.

"I'm not sure. We had quite the crowd doing last minute shopping today. You can go ask Annabeth though, she should be over there, organizing the video game section."

Percy thanked Chiron and headed off towards where he was pointing.

~~oOo~~

Annabeth really regretted agreeing to do the last shift before the store closed on Christmas Eve. But, Chiron was like a father to her, and it wasn't that bad. Since most people were out celebrating, she had the whole store mainly to herself (not including Chiron who was at the front in case anyone did decide to come). She just had to make it to her best friend's Christmas Party in time. She had about ten minutes until her shift ended, so she started organizing the shelves and cleaning up, since no one would walk into a tech store on Christmas Eve, ten minutes before it closed, right? Obviously not, because just as Annabeth was about to ask Chiron if she could leave a few minutes early, the familiar sound of the door could be heard all throughout the nearly silent store, and Annabeth heard someone talking to Chiron. Ugh, she thought, I wonder who would go into a store ten minutes before it closes. She was jolted from her thoughts when someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned around to face a boy that looked about the same age as her, wearing an elf hat on top of his messy hair.

"Can I help you with anything?" she sighed. The boy flashed her a lopsided smile that threatened to make Annabeth's knees turn to jelly.

"I, uh, was wondering if you guys had any decent video games left?" he said after a moment of awkward silence. Annabeth raised her eyebrow.

"Decent?"

"Well, yeah, most of the other stores I went to only had this crappy game called Mr. D or something." he explained.

"Oh yeah, we've only sold about three of those since it came out a few weeks ago. Must have been pretty bad."

The boy's eyebrows creased in confusion. "Wait, I thought you worked here? Aren't you supposed to try to sell this stuff?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but there's literally four minutes until we close, and I have a party to get to," she replied. The boy's eyes widened and he cringed.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I also have a party to get to I just forgot to buy a present and I'm really sorry, I probably should have planned this out better-" Annabeth cut off his rambling with a laugh.

"No, it's fine. What do you need?"

He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well I actually don't really know. I have no clue what my secret Santa likes, I'm just going on a whim here."

Annabeth smiled. "Okay, I could show you what we have left in stock." She led him to the back rooms where a few video games were still in stock.

"So, we still have a few copies of Gods and Monsters, and my personal favourite, Goddess of Wisdom." she said as she handed two cases to the boy. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the intercom.

"Attention all shoppers, the store with close in a few minutes, if you have anything to buy, please proceed to the checkout counters to pay for your items. Have a happy holiday, and thank you for shopping at Half-Blood Tech!"

Annabeth stared expectantly at the boy, waiting for him to choose one of the games. He seemed to be staring at her face, and she blushed.

"My name's Percy," he suddenly blurted out.

"My name's Annabeth," she replied. "Are you going to choose one of the games?"

"Oh! Uh, sorry, I'll take both," he stuttered.

"Alright, just go to the counter and Chiron will help you there. Merry Christmas!" she waved as he walked away.

"Okay. Um, bye, Annabeth!"

Annabeth smiled to herself. Time to go to Thalia's party.

~~oOo~~

Percy mentally cursed himself for acting like an idiot. He was pretty sure Annabeth caught him staring at her, but gods she was so pretty. _Huh. My secret santa's name is Annabeth, too. Maybe it's the same person. I hope I get to see her again,_ Percy thought to himself while driving to Jason's apartment. _Nah, she probably thinks I'm a creep for staring at her._ He hastily stuffed the games in a gift bag as he got out of his car and made his way towards the apartment building. When he reached Jason's floor, he was greeted by Leo, one of Jason's friends.

"Hey man! Glad you made can just put your stuff over here. I like your hat!"

"Oh, thanks," Percy hung his jacket up as Jason approached him.

"Merry Christmas, bro!"

"Merry Christmas," Percy replied.

"Here, I'll introduce you to some of Thalia's friends," Jason said as he steered Percy into the living room, where Thalia was talking to a blonde girl that looked slightly familiar.

"Percy, this is Annabeth. Thalia's best friend," Jason introduced them. "I don't think you've met before."

Annabeth turned around and Percy gaped at her. It was the girl from the tech store. She smirked at him.

"Nice to meet you, stranger." Percy felt his face heat up.

"H-hey," he stuttered. Jason looked at him confused.

"Have you two met before?" he asked.

"Yeah," Annabeth chirped brightly. "He's the guy from the store I was telling you about."

Jason's eyes widened and he laughed.

"Dude, that was you? Annabeth was telling us about how you went in ten minutes before the store closed." Percy's face felt like it was on fire. This was going to be a long night...

 **YAAAAAAAAY! All done. I was going to post it yesterday, but it wasn't finished. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays guys! You can send me requests or prompts for oneshots, it'll probably motivate me to write more. (Also, I'm usually more active on tumblr than fanfiction if you want to check out my blog)**

 **~ Purplicouspolkadot**


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